Someone Like You
by christinabeard1
Summary: Tony will not find anyone like Christina Beard.


p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"FRIDAY has a bug. /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Not just any bug, the buggiest bug in bug history./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The coffee machine is supposed to turn on at 7:00am. Instead, it turns on at 7:05am. span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"7:05/span. Which is five minutes after Steve gets back from his run—just long enough for him to think that the machine span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"won't/span turn on and make coffee himself./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Seven-fucking-oh-five./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Tony reset the software. He span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"rewrote/span the software. He bought a new coffee maker. How could span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"replacing the machine /spannot fix the problem?/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"It's a nightmare. Tony's own personal hell. The coffee gods must have a vendetta against him./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Every time he thinks he sees the bug, it vanishes into the binary from which it came with nothing but a smattering of loose code in its wake—a goddamn Cheshire cat, disappearing except for its smile./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""It's really not a big deal," Rhodey says./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Tony doesn't look up from the skeleton of the coffee machine, stabbing at it with his screwdriver. "It span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"is/span."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Just set it for five minutes earlier."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""One: that doesn't fix the problem, it circumvents the problem." He removes another layer of the machines circuitry. "Two: I tried that. But then it actually turns on at six fifty-five."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""So?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""So," Tony continues through gritted teeth, "then Clint has enough time to get a second cup and there's none left over when I get there."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"For a few blessed moments, there is silence in Tony's workshop. Rhodey doesn't let it last. "Tony, we both know this has nothing to do with the coffeemaker."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I don't know what you're talking about," he says with no inflection. "FRIDAY, can we get some music going? AC/DC. Greatest hits."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"FRIDAY obliges, but Rhodey talks over the strains of electric guitar. "This is about Pepper."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Nope, it's not." Tony turns back to the mess of wiring that was his coffee maker./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""She left, man. It sucks, but you gotta deal with it."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"An errant screw drops off the workbench. Tony ignores it. "Nothing to deal with."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""You're going to see her eventually. She's still in your life. She runs your company."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""FRIDAY, turn up the music."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Rhodey crosses to the other side of the bench so he's in Tony's line of sight and raises his voice to be heard over the guitar solo of Back in Black. "It's just… a break… space… you know? She still cares about you."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The handle of the screwdriver gives way and the metal end slices through Tony's other hand. He swears, dropping the screwdriver, the coffeemaker, everything. "This is not about Pepper."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The lights in the lab flicker. Tony jerks around./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" FRIDAY's voice slurs as she speaks. I hav- detec-c-ted unauthori-zzz-ed ac-cess through the system firewaaaaall./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Rhodey looks to him in alarm. "That can happen?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""No, it can't." With a flick of his wrist, Tony pulls up the holographic visualization of FRIDAY and the Avengers' system. He dives into the code, surrounding himself with FRIDAY's processes. It's the Cheshire cat, batting around his code again. He doesn't see it so much as the ripples it leaves in its wake. He follows them, trusting his instinct when things just don't look quite span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"right/span./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""FRIDAY, run a tracking protocol. Let's hunt this thing down."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"FRIDAY tries, but she's slow, too slow, swimming through a snowstorm of extraneous commands. Commands that Tony is not giving her. The Cheshire cat has him twisted all around himself, too busy trying to find its tail that he can't see what it's doing until it's already done./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Tony curses as he manually starts the emergency security measures. They isolate sections of the system, forcing the Cheshire to reroute. It slithers through like a game of centipede and is gone as suddenly as it had appeared./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"#/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"That was close—closer than you'd like. You hadn't counted on the AI finding your entry./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The glowing trails of the system extend out from you in every direction, as if you're a spider sitting at the center of a massive web. Reality is… disorienting. The bits that you can collect from the data streams around you come in flashes and realizations. It's not seeing—not touching or hearing either, for that matter—it's just… knowing./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Mundane traffic trundles along, unaware of your presence as you flow through it at the speed of thought. Your consciousness streams from node to node, jumping between servers and across connections, leaving nothing in your wake. These are familiar pathways. You relax, falling into a half-waking state where the arteries of information pump you along, letting your awareness flow through them, spreading out until you feel a tingle at the end of one tendril. In a moment, your whole being converges at the spot./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Your exit trail from Stark's system is too wide, too easily traced. You can't risk him finding you on the open net. He has to find you in the span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"right/span place. Which means distracting him from the wreckage you left behind./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"/strong/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"#/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The coffee bug is a nuisance, but the security breach is a span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"problem/span. The Avengers' system is decades ahead of anything else in the world. So, if someone is tinkering around in his code, Tony needs to find them. Fast./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"FRIDAY detected an "unauthorized access", so the source must have been from outside. He thought the coffee bug was an internal issue, but the security breach puts it in a different perspective. Someone is testing him, poking the system to see what happens. They're finding the weak spots and so far, they're doing a damn good job of it./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""FRIDAY, let's get some tunes going. The White album."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Sure thing./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Tony zones in, going to that comfortable space where he sees nothing but the problem in front of him. Until the first notes of 'Single Ladies' start playing./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""FRIDAY?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Yeah, boss?/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I asked for Beatles, not Beyoncé." The music cuts out. "Get it right this time."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Trumpets blare through the speakers, the first strains of 'Crazy in Love'./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""FRIDAY!"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"S-tz-orry, boss./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Tony catches a flurry of codes changes on the far side of the system visualization. Son of a bitch. The Cheshire, back already. "FRIDAY, freeze everything. Full stop."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The system grinds to a halt. It's an emergency measure, horrible for the databanks, the hardware, everything. But it stops the Cheshire cat in its tracks./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Hello, there." He prowls around the outside of the visualization, surveying the edges of the intruding program. It's not just a virus like he'd thought. It's an independent AI—self-writing, internally sustained. The edges blur into his own code, as if moving through like a ghost. It's extraordinary. Intricate. "Look at you..." Tony says as he moves closer to inspect the Cheshire. "You're gorgeous."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"I bet you say that to all the pretty girls./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"That. Is. Not. FRIDAY./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Flush the system. Now!"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The lab goes dark and leaves only the sound of Tony's heart pounding in his ears./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"#/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"If you could feel pain, that's what this would be. Eviction from Stark's system left you shattered. You recall your scattered consciousness, slowly at first, then picking up speed as the familiar pieces fall into place. As far as first meetings go, that was… pretty bad. But you have his attention now. Step one complete./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Stark is curious. He'll come looking. He won't be able to help himself. And this time, the trail will lead in the correct direction./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" set_location(HOMEBASE);/strong/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" execute_initiative(hide_and_seek);/strong/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"#/p  
table style="border: none; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: auto; padding: 0px; background-color: transparent; border-collapse: collapse; width: 378.4375px; clear: right; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" width="100%"  
tbody style="border: none; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: transparent;"  
tr style="border: none; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: transparent;"  
td style="border: none; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: top; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0.25em; background-color: transparent;" /td  
td style="border: none; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: top; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0.25em; background-color: transparent;" width="30%"How could it have moved during the freeze? Nothing can move after the freeze. It's an span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"emergency/spanprotocol for a reason. And what was that thing anyway? It wasn't a virus or an intrusion protocol. It was a self-writing artificial intelligence—the closest thing that Tony has seen to sentience since JARVIS. It was faster than FRIDAY. Nothing is faster than FRIDAY. Tony built FRIDAY from scratch. She's the culmination of a decade of experimentation with self-aware artificial intelligence. The kind of computing power it would take to run a system like that is enormous. There can't be that many sources where someone could be playing with that. Not to mention programmers. It had to be a team effort, some sort of organizational programming that resulted in… or neural networking. Why hadn't he thought of that earlier? Placing an artificial sentience in a self-learning environment so that it grows on its own. But even then, why was it going after the contents of the Avengers' system? It had broken through, gotten past the firewall then went for—what—the coffeemaker? Tony's music albums? What was the point? If it was poking experimental holes in the system, that would explain it. But it had already gotten through. And it was tinkering with the least valuable pieces of information. The Cheshire hadn't accessed the main files. And if it was powerful enough to break out of the system freeze, it was powerful enough to bash through the firewall that protected the Avenger files. But it seems like it was targeting things specifically. Tony things. Like its mission was to irritate him. Why would a program want to irritate him? Unless it is span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"trying/span to get his attention. Who does Tony know that is that far advanced? Other than Tony himself. Unless it is Tony. Or… was Tony. Had Ultron really been eradicated? Did he have any assurance of that? There are a million places in the internet where he could have hidden, biding his time. But Ultron wouldn't waste time exchanging Tony's music files. He wouldn't toy with Tony like this. He would go for the kill—/td  
td style="border: none; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: top; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0.25em; background-color: transparent;"  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Jesus, Tony! What happened to the lab?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Housekeeping."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""O-kay. Is this why the internet is down?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Uh, yeah. I'm working on it."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Did you eat today?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""What?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Food? Did you eat today?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I'll get around to it."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""How long have you been in here?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Not that long. Since Rhodey left."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""That was two days ago."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Hey, FRIDAY isn't responding."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""I shut down FRIDAY for a while."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Are you sure you're okay?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;""Never better."/p  
/td  
/tr  
/tbody  
/table  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" /p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" FRIDAY interrupts. I have completed the tracking protocol./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Tony emerges from his daze to find himself hip deep in a mess of electronics. Grease covers his hands and a few electrical burns stand out against his arms. He shakes himself. "Thrill me."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"FRIDAY projects a map into the center of the room. The attack originated from a long-term care facility in Albany. A flicker of images join the map. A private room in a ward reserved for coma patients./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The vegetable patch? Huh. "Who's our patient?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"That information is unavailable./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Double huh. "Who pays for the room?"/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Stark Industries./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Triple huh. "Pull up Stark Industries records regarding the transactions."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Those records are unavailable./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"It's bait, clear and simple. Someone had taken a lot of care to make this look like a trap. It would be rude not to walk into it./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""FRIDAY, lay out a flight plan to Albany."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"#/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"It's just an extended care facility. A normal one by any stretch of the imagination. Nothing sinister lurking here. Tony hadn't realized that it was the middle of the night when he started his flight, but it's way past visiting hours when he arrives. That's not span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"really/span a problem; he's not span style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: oblique; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"really/span visiting. He's just checking something out. The hack came from somewhere and all his best information points to this building. He slips out of the suit before he goes in, keeping it on guard. It will draw more attention than he needs right now. This is just recon./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"A hush settles over the building like dust. The room Tony seeks waits at the end of the hall. Private corner, long-term care. The room is dark, dimmed for the night. A single bed occupies the space, a wilted vase of sunflowers on the table next to it. He approaches the bed—your bed—and gravitates to the chart. Hidden in the medical jargon is a simple fact: you're in perfect health, except for the coma. You should be up and walking, but you aren't. Your condition is… unexplained. No higher brain functioning, but no physical cause. No trauma, no illness, just absence. A body with no soul./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Tony's eyes rove over the room, inspecting each shadow. There's a catch somewhere. Someone wanted him here. Someone wanted him to see you. Tony wants to know why. He replaces the chart and steps to your side. Your face is serene, like a pane of glass. Tattoos swirl over your skin, everywhere that's visible beyond your hospital gown, a biological art canvas. Metal decorates the edges of your ears, the arch of an eyebrow, the corner of your lip, more piercings than he can count. Your hair has grown out, but the tips are bright pink, evidence of an earlier decoration. You're… wild. He brushes the back of your hand with his fingertips./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The heart rate monitor beeps in alarm and Tony takes an instinctive step back. Every light on the screen flashes. Jesus, fuck, what did he do?/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"A nurse rushes in but stops short when she sees Tony. He can see the question in her eyes: call security and risk something happening to you in the meantime or rush to your aid and take her chances that Tony isn't a threat? The monitor continues its frantic call, punctuating the tension between them./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""I—" he starts, hoping to allay her fears, but she holds up one imposing finger./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""You stand over there."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Tony does as he's told, already working on the explanation he'll need to make to security, maybe the police, hopefully not Pepper… Shit./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The nurse checks your pulse, your pupils, then looks to the monitor. She taps the screen, jarring the box on the stand. Tony takes the opportunity that her confusion offers and sidles out, stealing your chart while the nurse is preoccupied with you. He'll donate a new building later./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"#/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"A flurry of Avengers business keeps Tony from investigating you until over a week later. A week, and all he can think about is why someone wanted him to end up in your hospital room, looking at your chart. And why the monitor had gone crazy when he got too close. And what the hell that has to do with the Cheshire AI that invaded FRIDAY. There wasn't even a computer terminal in that room. Someone had manipulated a number of internet traces to lead FRIDAY there./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Tony settles into the lab with a steaming cup of coffee and your chart. He surrounds himself with you: medical history, pictures, videos. You're a rave girl, all color and flash and glitter. You fled your humble start for the livelier life of the West Coast and a prestigious scholarship. You dropped out of college a year later for a massive paycheck at a tech startup that collapsed before it could go anywhere./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Then you were recruited by Stark Industries./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"To work at Helen Cho's laboratories/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"In Seoul./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"In 2015./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"You had only worked there for a week (you hadn't even rented an apartment) when Ultron burst on the scene. A stone settles in Tony's stomach as he calls up the security footage. He's watched it before—couldn't stop himself—but never looked for anyone specific. He directed Pepper to pay for all employee hospital bills resulting from the attack. It was the least he could do. And it's why he's been paying for your care. You're his responsibility./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Finding you takes some time. Even in a small, secure lab like Helen's, there were hundreds of employees. But he finds you. Pink hair, ripped jeans, a black skull tank top. You're programming the security computers when Ultron comes in the quinjet docking bay./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Tony's heart jumps to his throat. Ultron ignores you, but you notice him. You're subtle, making no moves that would betray you, and activate the security lockdown procedures. The doors lock, hallways seal themselves. Tony's mouth twitches. You don't stop Ultron, but you slow him down. His wrath is swift and impersonal. A blast from the staff blows you across the room. You don't get up./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"That's it. That's all he has about you. Glaring, gaping evidence of his inability to protect you. Fuck. If the Cheshire's programmer is trying to make Tony feel like shit, they're succeeding./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"He needs a drink./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"#/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The third glass of scotch doesn't make him feel better. Maybe the fourth will. You smile at him from every direction, snarky and sarcastic, playful and energetic. And it's his fault that you're gone. Worse than gone. Trapped in a limbo of nothingness./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The image in front of him flickers, a burst of static interrupting your laugh./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"Boss, I've detected unauthorized changes./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"No shit. Tony's Cheshire is back. "Alright, FRIDAY. Start the Garden Maze protocol. Let's see if we can back it into a corner."/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"It isn't easy. The Cheshire slips through the tiniest of cracks—sometimes through seemingly solid barriers—barely visible, hardly substantial. Twice Tony doesn't see its objective until it reaches it. But he prunes its options, herding it into a smaller and smaller section of the system. It wreaks havoc as it goes, getting sloppier as the net tightens./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;""Gotcha," Tony says when he isolates it to a single server and cuts off all avenues of escape. It thrashes against the new barriers, stretching the limits of the container Tony designed to hold it. He trades in his normal holographic visualization for the pure simplicity of the code base, leaving the Cheshire source bare in front of him. It does not take kindly to captivity, rebuffing all Tony's attempts to pick it apart. His original opinion stands. It's pure artistry, masterful, ahead of anything Tony has seen. It's practically alive./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"#/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The trap is inconvenient—annoying really—like you're smothered in mashed potatoes. Every attempt you make at removing the snowfall of commands is futile. The restraints you wipe away are merely replaced again. Stark is clever. He pokes and prods at you, querying from every avenue./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"You concentrate, forming a solid tendril and spearing through the mush, sending a forceful command even his container can't withstand. Nothing fancy. No audio, just text. Simple. Powerful./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" show("HEY TONY");/strong/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"The inquiries pause. You caught his attention./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" show("LET'S TALK ABOUT THIS");/strong/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"He renews his assault, sophisticated programs tugging at your edges. You shake them off. This is not productive. You need him to stop so you can explain./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" show("LET ME OUT");/strong/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"You know the moment he puts in the kill command. The restraints around you tighten with new menace, suffocating you. Well, that's no good at all./p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"strong style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" show("BAD IDEA");/strong/p  
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 13.229999542236328px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"You withdraw into yourself, concentrating to a miniscule point of potent energy. As the assassination protocol dives in, all frothing mouth and gnashing teeth, you release, exploding out with a force like a digital nuclear bomb. You take out the protocol, blow through the container, and blast past everything else./p 


End file.
